Colorful Ice Globes
Winter vibes are in full swing, and I’ve stumbled upon the coolest (literally!) activity for some family fun. We turned balloons and water into crystal Ice Globes! Our front yard has never looked so magical. Embrace the chill, get creative, and make memories with this awesome winter activity!
You will need:
Balloons – we used 9 inch
Food Coloring
Put food coloring in the balloon first. If you want your colors to be bold, add a few extra drops. We used the back of the food coloring box to mix colors.
*Idea* You can try leaving one just water to compare it to the colored ice globes.
Fill your balloons with water. You need a faucet that you can wrap the end of the balloon on. If you can’t wrap the whole end on the faucet, there won’t be enough pressure to fill the balloon. Show your little one what the colored water looks like in the balloons. Mine looked forward to seeing each one.
Try to let out as much air as possible before tying.
Remember, you have to bring these outside so be careful how big you make them!
Carefully, place your balloons outside! We made a small bed for each balloon in the snow. With temps in the teens, I fully expected the balloons to freeze overnight but when I checked them in the morning, only half of each balloon was frozen! The half facing the ground was still liquid. Perfect teachable moment right here! Half of each balloon was insulated by the warmer ground and snow around it. It must have happened because of our little beds we made for them.
So, we flipped each one over and put them in a new spot. They were frozen the next morning.
Now, you get to unveil your beautiful globes! The balloons actually peel off quite easy and some were already ripping when we brought them in. Our blue one had a cool cave that the babes explored.
Before we took ours outside, we sprinkled some water over the spots that looked white or had snow. This really made them SHINE.
I absolutely LOVE how these turned out. It looks like the colors exploded.
You could fill water guns with warm water and use them as targets or put them on a railing and watch them melt over time. We used them as decoration and lined the walkway. They are so pretty!
We will definitely make these again next year!
